Social ecological model
Socioecological models were introduced to urban studies by sociologists associated with the Chicago School after the First World War as a reaction to the narrow scope of most research conducted by developmental psychologists.
In his initial theory, Bronfenbrenner postulated that in order to understand human development, the entire ecological system in which growth occurs needs to be taken into account.
In subsequent revisions, Bronfenbrenner acknowledged the relevance of biological and genetic aspects of the person in human development.
At the core of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model is the child’s biological and psychological makeup, based on individual and genetic developmental history.
Other broader social, political and economic conditions (exosystem) influence the structure and availability of microsystems and the manner in which they affect the child.
Finally, social, political, and economic conditions are themselves influenced by the general beliefs and attitudes (macrosystems) shared by members of the society.
[1] A system can be defined as a comparatively bounded structure consisting of interacting, interrelated, or interdependent elements that form a whole.
[4] Social ecology also incorporates concepts such as interdependence and homeostasis from systems theory to characterize reciprocal and dynamic person-environment transactions.
Bronfenbrenner[10] stated that "it is useful to distinguish two periods: the first ending with the publication of the Ecology of Human Development (1979), and the second characterized by a series of papers that called the original model into question."
In his original theory, Bronfenbrenner postulated that in order to understand human development, the entire ecological system in which growth occurs needs to be taken into account.
Each system depends on the contextual nature of the person's life and offers an evergrowing diversity of options and sources of growth.
The microsystem encompasses the relationships and interactions a child has with his or her immediate surroundings such as family, school, neighborhood, or childcare environments.
[13] The real power in this initial set of interrelations with family for the child is what they experience in terms of developing trust and mutuality with their significant people.
[22] For example, a program like Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) may positively impact a young mother through health care, vitamins, and other educational resources.
[23] In this example, without an umbrella of beliefs, services, and support for families, children and their parents are open to great harm and deterioration.
[11] Elements within this system can be either external, such as the timing of a parent's death, or internal, such as the physiological changes that occur with the aging of a child.
Bronfenbrenner[18] suggests that, in many cases, families respond to different stressors within the societal parameters existent in their lives.
The full, revised theory deals with the interaction among processes, person, context and time, and is labeled the Process–Person–Context–Time model (PPCT).
They constitute the engines of development because it is by engaging in activities and interactions that individuals come to make sense of their world, understand their place in it, and both play their part in changing the prevailing order while fitting into the existing one.
[25] As explained in the second of the two central propositions, the social continuities and changes occur overtime through the life course and the historical period during which the person lives.
Demand characteristics are those that act as an immediate stimulus to another person, such as age, gender, skin color, and physical appearance.
[26] The context, or environment, involves four of the five interrelated systems of the original theory: the microsystem, the mesosystem, the exosystem, and the macrosystem.
In the same way that both context and individual factors are divided into sub-factors or sub-systems, Bronfenbrenner and Morris wrote about time as constituting micro-time (what is occurring during the course of some specific activity or interaction), meso-time (the extent to which activities and interactions occur with some consistency in the developing person's environment), and macro-time (the chronosystem).
[26] The application of social ecological theories and models focus on several goals: to explain the person-environment interaction, to improve people-environment transactions, to nurture human growth and development in particular environments, and to improve environments so they support expression of individual's system's dispositions.
